April 2020 | ADA Solutions - Tactile Warning Surfaces

Locations Where Tactile Surfaces Are Required

diagonal tactile paving at platform edge

Detectable warning surfaces are required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Federal guidelines require warning mats to be of a minimum size and for truncated domes to meet specific diameter, height, and spacing requirements. These surface-mounted truncated domes can be felt through a cane, walker, wheelchair, or a person’s feet.

Among the most important ADA requirements is where tactile surfaces should be located. To alert an individual of the edge of a walkable path and any potential oncoming traffic and other hazards, these should be placed at:

Curb Ramps

Cutting through a curb or built up to it, curb ramps let walker, scooter, or wheelchair users safely travel between the street and sidewalk. For a person who is visually impaired, identifying these transitions can be difficult. Therefore, detectable warning mats are required where the sidewalk meets the street, a curb indicates a crosswalk, or anywhere a ramp is located. On a sidewalk, truncated domes tell visually impaired individuals they are in a safe area or that moving traffic may be nearby.

Street Intersections

Tactile surfaces must be installed on curb ramps at street intersections. If the street or sidewalk was built pre-ADA, it will vary whether this is required. a municipality can install curb ramps at key pedestrian crossings to ease access to accessible building entrances and to and from accessible parking garages. At other nearby crossings and locations, it may choose to install curb ramps and detectable warning tiles, depending on whether other public facilities are nearby or if input from people with mobility disabilities suggests they are needed.

Transit Platform Edges

The ADA requires platform boarding edges without protective screens or guards to have tactile warning surfaces. Panels must be 24 inches wide for the entire length of a platform used by the public. Some warning systems use grooved lines. However, visually impaired people may not easily recognize these. Hard truncated domes are easily identifiable, even underfoot through the soles of one’s shoes, to alert someone of the platform edge and prevent them from falling onto the tracks.

Track Crossings

Truncated dome mats are required on sections of sidewalk approaching where the path crosses a train track. They must be far enough back to alert someone well before they could be in danger. In general, a distance of six to fifteen feet (from the center line of the nearest rail) is sufficient. It leaves enough room for a train gate to close, and it keeps the person far enough from a passing train.

Islands or Cut-Through Medians

A raised island at a crossing must be cut through and level with the street. Alternatively, it can have curb ramps at both sides. There also needs to be a level area of at least 48 inches long by 36 inches wide in the direction of the ramp’s running slope.

If you have any questions or uncertainties about truncated dome requirements or your facility’s need for detectable warnings, ADA Solutions can help. We offer numerous products with surface-mounted truncated domes that comply with the latest standards. Contact us today at 800-372-0519.

April 25, 2020

Blog

Who Exactly Has to Comply with ADA?

Most businesses are required by law to follow the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This important piece of legislation, first enforced in 1991 and amended over the years, mainly focuses on businesses that serve the public. It requires them to provide equal opportunity to individuals with disabilities, especially regarding access. There are five segments called titles that provide guidance as to which businesses must be ADA-compliant.

Here is a closer look at the most relevant ones:

ADA Title I: This is most applicable to small private business owners. Private employers are covered under Title I, which prohibits discrimination based on disability, requires businesses to provide all employees with the same privileges, and makes reasonable accommodations to allow them to perform their duties. Those required to comply with the law include anyone who:
- Works in an industry that impacts commerce
- Employs 15 or more workers on a full-time basis
- Does so for at least 20 weeks per year
ADA Title III: This only applies to businesses that are categorized as public accommodations. There are many that fall into this group. Under federal law, such accommodations include restaurants and bars, retail outlets, banks, health care provider offices, banks, and inns, hotels, and motels. Schools, gyms, social service centers, recreation venues, and public transportation facilities must also be compliant.

Those exempt from the law include private religious organizations and clubs, but there are many commercial facilities that aren’t included either. If a warehouse, office building, or factory doesn’t provide goods or services directly to the public, it only needs to meet ADA requirements if it undergoes alterations or is being newly constructed.

ADA guidelines are less strict for small businesses. However, owners are expected to make reasonable efforts to accommodate individuals with disabilities. That means if your facility prohibits animals, an exemption for service dogs is recommended. If it’s not too difficult or costly, physical barriers should be removed to best serve the public.

For businesses with larger resources, the “readily achievable” requirement takes a larger stand because these organizations can take a more active role. Also, the ADA recognizes the impact of economic factors such as profits. If profits go down, a reduction or delay in barrier removal can be accepted under the ADA.

What Is ADA?

In its 2010 Standards for Accessible Design, the United States Department of Justice called for the removal of architectural barriers to make facilities more accessible. Some of its requirements include adding curb cuts to sidewalks and entrances, arranging furniture so that there’s a clear path of travel, widening doors, and allowing enough room around toilet partitions to accommodate a wheelchair.

The regulations also cover factors such as entrance ramps and accessible parking in areas of public accommodation. Also, the ADA focuses on ensuring goods and services are available by changing display rack layouts, using more visible signage, or including Braille.

The ADA provides a safe harbor provision in its Title III regulations. It states that any facility elements built or altered before March 15, 2012 don’t have to be adapted to the 2010 standards if they comply with the standards that went into effect in 1991. However, residential facilities and dwelling units, amusement rides, golf facilities, play areas, and swimming pools aren’t covered by the provision.

What Are the Consequences of Noncompliance?

It is important to be ADA-compliant, as it not only improves accessibility and safety but also because it is looked upon carefully by the courts. Proving that barrier removal could not be readily achieved can be a challenge, as the court may see this argument as a weak defense. There are variables such as what is not readily achievable can be done later. Ambiguities in the statutory language can present challenges for any facility or government entity being sued.

The civil penalties for ADA-noncompliance were last adjusted in 2014. A business found to violate ADA Title III rules can face a civil penalty of as much as $75,000 for a first violation. The maximum is $150,000 for a subsequent violation.¹

Areas of Compliance

The ADA has provided a checklist for barrier removal to use as guidance. Some areas of compliance involve accessibility of public telephones, elevator call buttons and control panels, drinking fountains, self-service kiosks, and vending machines.

Regarding ADA safety, perhaps the most important consideration concerns detectable warning surfaces. These are required wherever there is a public right-of-way. Crosswalks, store entrances, walkways, and parking lots are just a few examples. The ADA provides specific regulations on the size and placement of these panels, as well as the width, height, and spacing of the truncated domes on them that allow people using canes, wheelchairs, and scooters to detect a transition in surfaces or where an area of high traffic is nearby.

ADA Solutions Can Help Your Facility Stay Compliant

Our products can help you comply with ADA regulations and local ordinances and laws. While the ADA doesn’t, some local jurisdictions require a specific color to be used. The ADA calls for a contrast of light and dark. If you’re looking to complete ADA compliant updates, we can help you with a variety of products, including replaceable panels and cast-in-place units. If you don’t have ADA-compliant pavers, you can retrofit your facility with surface-applied detectable warning systems.

We also offer tactile radius systems for curved areas such as sidewalk corners or turns in accessible pathways. Replaceable graphic tiles, photoluminescent systems, and heavy-duty cast in place warning tiles for transit facilities are available as well. The guidelines for transit facilities are somewhat different, but we offer those and Staggered Dome Surface Applied Tactile, In-Line Surface Applied Tactile, and Staggered Dome Cast-in-Place Tactile surfaces.

Whatever the needs of your public facility, ADA Solutions can provide the ADA-compliant tactile warning surfaces it needs to improve accessibility, safety, and compliance. Call 800-372-0519 to learn more or get a free quote.

Source:

https://www.ada.gov/civil_penalties_2014.htm

April 13, 2020

Blog

How to Improve Your Public Access System in 2020

If you’re looking to improve your public access system, look no further than the most recent guidelines. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which became a law in 1990, covers everything from workplace discrimination to web usability, to the accessibility of public access points. Titles II and III, which were originally published in 1991, are collectively known as the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design. If you intend on making improvements in 2020, here are some requirements to consider.

Public access systems owned by state and local government agencies, commercial facilities, and operators of public accommodations must be ADA-compliant. The law applies to newly designed facilities, newly constructed facilities, and those that have been altered after the latest rules went into effect.

To be compliant with these standards, a facility must be:

Readily accessible to individuals with disabilities
Usable by individuals with disabilities.

What Is Required and Where?

Here is what to improve if you’re looking to update your public access system:

Curb Ramps: Updates as recently as 2016 make state and local governments fully responsible for how they build curbs. These guidelines call for a slope of no more than 8.33% and for the ramp to be at least 36 inches wide.¹ Any transition must be level with the street, walkway, or gutter. A curb ramp must be placed anywhere a sidewalk or pedestrian path touches a curb that transitions into a roadway.
Sidewalks: Any sidewalk must have a clear width of 36 inches minimum. However, if a given section extends for 24 inches, this can be reduced to 32 inches, but reduced width areas must be separated by 48- x 36-inch (minimum) segments. At least one accessible route must be available from a public street, accessible parking area, or passenger loading zone. Common violations include incorrect or missing signs at entrances or exits, steep slopes, a lack of accessible bathroom stalls, and non-compliant stairways, parking spaces, and service counters.²

The latest guidelines consider the fact people with disabilities may not notice changes in walking surfaces. This includes where a sidewalk transitions into a busy street with vehicular traffic or where an elevated ramp begins, which stresses the need for:

Detectable Warning Surfaces: These are surfaces placed on or embedded in concrete that feature truncated domes. Each dome must meet specific guidelines in terms of height, width, and placement in relation to other domes. The purpose of this is to create an audible surface that makes a sound when a person using a walking stick or wheelchair passes over it. Detectable warning surfaces are bright in color to provide contrast with surrounding surfaces. Their tactile nature enables people to feel the truncated domes below their feet (more on tactile warning surfaces by ADA Solutions, Inc. later).

Requirements are in place for specific types of facilities. Here is a look at ADA requirements to consider when making improvements to:

Housing at Places of Education: Kitchens must have a turning space of at least 36 inches wide, while multi-bedroom housing units with accessible sleeping rooms must have an accessible route through the unit.
Assembly Areas: Horizontally dispersed wheelchair spaces and companion seats must be available in stadiums, arenas, and grandstands on all levels near a field of play or performance area. In stadium-style movie theaters, they must be on a riser or cross-aisle within the rear 60% of seats.³
Medical Care Facilities: Sufficient clear floor space should be available at a parallel approach to the side of a bed. Turning space should be provided in toilet and bathing rooms, as well. Doors in such rooms must not impose on the clear floor space when open unless they’re not for common use or public use.
Detection/Correctional Facilities: At least 3% of cells, and no fewer than one cell, in a facility must have accessible mobility features, including adequate turning space, compliant benches, and clear floor space near a bed and in toilet and bathing facilities.⁴
Primary Function Areas: Areas within a facility containing a major activity, such as bank tellers, telephones, restrooms, drinking fountains, and employee areas, must have an accessible path of travel.

In fact, ADA requirements affect any business or organization that accommodates the public, including stores, restaurants, public restrooms, parks, parking garages, bus stations, and train/rail/subway stations; as well as airports, hotels/motels/resorts, and apartment/rental properties.

In addition to detectable warning surfaces and clear accessibility paths, you want to ensure the following are ADA-compliant:

Number of accessible parking spaces: There must be at least one accessible parking space in a parking facility of up to 25 total spaces, two in a 26 to 25 space lot, and 2% of the total in a parking facility with 501 to 1,000 spaces.
Accessible doors/gates: Doors must have a clear width of at least 32 inches, measured with the door open 90 degrees, and openings more than 24 inches deep must provide at least 36 inches of clear space with no projections lower than 34 inches high.
Handles: A handle, latch, or lock on a door or gate must be between 34 and 48 inches high from the floor or ground. Similarly, railings, handrails, and guards can not exceed 34 inches above the ground or a deck surface.
Ramp rails: Handrails are also required on ramp runs that rise more than 6 inches; they should be provided on both sides of ramps and stairs. The top gripping surface must be between 34 and 38 inches high at all points above a walking or ramp surface.
Benches: Bench seats must be at least 42 inches long and from 20 to 24 inches deep, with proper back support; adequate clear floor or ground space must be positioned at the end of the bench seat and parallel to the bench’s short axis.⁶

Improve Your Public Access System with ADA Products

At ADA Solutions, Inc., we can help your facility meet ADA requirements. We provide a variety of warning surfaces that improve public access and mobility for visually impaired or otherwise disabled persons. Our Cast-in-Place replaceable panels introduced in 2006 are designed for insertion into fresh concrete, while our Surface Applied detectable warning surfaces can be retrofit onto an existing concrete surface or new construction.

We also offer a heavy-duty Cast-in-Place panel with linear embedment ribs. In addition, our radius system accommodates turns in walking surfaces; they can accommodate a variety of radius conditions and be custom cut to fit applications when necessary. We are also glad to offer solutions for transit facilities, including Heavy Duty Cast-in-Place Tactile, Staggered Dome Surface Applied Tactile, In-Line Surface Applied Tactile, and Staggered Dome Cast-in-Place Tactile.

Most of our products are made of a durable fiberglass reinforced composite material that’s resistant to UV fade and allows your facility to address compliance with the latest ADA standards. Cast iron detectable warning surfaces are also available. Tactile feedback improves public access, mobility, and safety for all pedestrians. Our products meet all the dimensional requirements and specifications outlined in the latest guidelines.

To learn more about how to improve your public access system in 2020 or receive a free quote, call ADA Solutions, Inc. at (800) 372-0519 to speak to a detectable warning expert.

Sources:

April 1, 2020